Rating: 
Summary: A Great American Life
Review: As a lifelong New York Yankees fan, I grew up revering Joe DiMaggio. I knew his lifetime statistics, the pitcher he started his epic hitting streak against (Edgar Smith), and the pitchers who ended it (Al Smith and Jim Bagby, with fielding help from Ken Keltner). But it wasn't until reading Cramer's brilliant biography that I realized I didn't know a thing about Joltin' Joe.What a life the man led! And what a portrait of the American Century this book presents. So many of the great national themes make an appearance: immigration, war, Hollywood, the rise of television, the tragedies of the Sixties, the Mafia, privacy v. celebrity-- and linking everything together, the national pasttime, a game this man played better than just about anyone. As the first Subway Series in 44 years gets underway, it's a fitting time to pay tribute to the great, elegant Yankee, a lonely man who made millions happy. Bravo to Richard Ben Cramer for having the talent and the stamina to write such a good book about such a complex man.
Rating: 
Summary: DiMaggio uncovered
Review: Be forewarned: If you are a DiMaggio fan, you will likely hate this book or, at least you'll despise Richard Ben Cramer. Cramer writes with a wonderful, personal style, a sense of being there that tests credulity, as he fleshes out conversations and events from sixty or seventy years ago, without the assistance of the primary subject. This lack of cooperation from DiMaggio is both the strength and the weakness of the book. Baseball in the late 1930's had truly wonderful moments, in a era when it was the national pasttime, when trains preceded airplanes, radio preceded television, and World Series winnings could double or triple a player's annual salary. DiMaggio arrived at the time Ruth exited and Joe was there to see the end of Gehrig's career. Cramer introduces Joe in 1930 and richly catalogs the rapid ascent from North Beach to New York. Cramer almost sounds a bit mean-spirited, to use a term overused by Democrats today. But Cramer is not one to sugar coat. And DiMaggio could be mean. Joe DiMaggio was a little-educated son of an immigrant who had greatness thrust upon him. Sure, he wanted it, but he wanted fame on his own terms. And that is not the deal the devil makes when he gives the athletic skills, the New York stage, and the Hollywood starlet-filled life that the Yankee Clipper received. You can simultaneously admire and feel sorry for DiMaggio. DiMaggio had his selfishness, his conceits, his self-imagined slights. But could he play ball! Enjoy the life story of a great athlete.
Rating: 
Summary: Good addition to DiMaggio Literature
Review: Being a San Franciscan, I really appreciated the author's research and description of life in this City during the first 3-4 decades of the 20th century, including the baseball scene and the legend of Lefty O'Doul (whose bar is still open just off Union Square). There is also much to be learned for the younger readers about baseball in the 30s and 40s. Not all was a grand as today's romanticists like to portray it. How things should be is somewhere between the over-paid mediocre talent of today and the grossly underpaid---and unfree---players of those days. I can't imagine what someone of Dimaggio's caliber would be getting paid today. The book also shined when describing not only Joe's relationship with Marilyn Monroe (brutal by today's standards) and what Hollywood and stardom was like. Dimaggio's dysfunctional personality and apparent avarice are well-presented, as is the power he had to make men give up all dignity and self-respect simply to be his friend. While we can't simply assume everything said here about DiMaggio's attorney and "close personal friend", Morris Engelberg, is 100% accurate, it isn't hard to believe either. We had a very real taste of this man's character here in San Francisco with how he handled the whole affair of our city wanting to name the playground in North Beach for DiMaggio. The only gap in the book for me was the leap it made from Marilyn Monroe's death all the way to the 1989 SF earthquake. I thought Cramer went pretty far in depicting the Kennedy/Sinatra involvement with Monroe and why Joe so despised them after her death. But he stopped there quite abruptly. There probably was more that could have been written to show Joe's scorn for them (like the snub of Bobby Kennedy at Yankee Stadium during an Old Timers Game introductions...Joe refused to shake his hand). Baseball-wise, I think more could have also been written about Joe's feelings for---or against---Mickey Mantle and how he felt about THAT center fielder's so completely winning the hearts of Yankee fans. If the author's intended audience was people like me and older, who are familiar with Joe's life and career, then I'm off-base. If he was hoping to have the 20-30 crowd know more about this myth, I think he could have written a little more. Joe DiMaggio was not a good man necessarily, many people knew that before even reading this book. In today's world he would have been mauled by the press and fans and would likely not be perceived as such a heroic figure as he now is. Look at Barry Bonds, perhaps a better player overall (hard to say for those of us who never saw Joe actually play...hard to argue against 9 world championships in 13 years...versus Barry's ZERO), yet his personality is probably not too different from Joe's in his search for privacy and aloofness from his teammates. However, he is vilified by most and has precious few friends. In another day, he would have been up in the pantheon with the Babe and Joltin' Joe.
Rating:
Summary: DiMaggio-A Hero's Life by Cramer
Review: Joe DiMaggio began as an immigrant boy who made it big in
baseball during the first half of the previous century. He
came from a family which included 9 children. One of his first jobs was selling "The Call" for .03 apiece. His parents were Rosalie and Giuseppe DiMaggio. Initially, he had some problems in school; however, he quickly rose as an important Rookie with the Seals in 1933. At one point, Joe made 47 hits
consecutively. At age 19, he signed for a second year with the
Seals. He came to New York in 1938 and by 1942, he carried the
Yankees to a championship and himself to an MVP. Despite the
great accomplishment, he did not get compensated financially
until later on. The work is a "must read" for every baseball
enthusiast.
Rating:
Summary: Joe Would Never Have Approved!
Review: Joe DiMaggio is one of the top American icons of the 20th Century, and his his biographer, Richard Cramer does everything possible to lift the veil of the image and expose the truth.
And that he does. Through extensive research, much, I imagine, only made possible after DiMaggio died, Cramer exposes all of DiMaggio's warts.
And while the book is interesting, and a very good read, one has to wonder why DiMaggio turned out as he did. Was he the end result of an American public who couldn't get enough, or was he simply cheap, vain, bitter, and lonely because that's the way he was? Cramer's biographer of DiMaggio doesn't offer much insight, and the reader is left wondering why he became so bitter and negative.
There are also some serious gaps in the biography. We jump from Marilyn Monroe's death, in 1962, to the San Francisco earthquake of 1989. What happened in those 27 years?
Finally, thoughout the book, Cramer writes in the vernacular of DiMaggio's friends, and the vernacular of the day, so good portions of the book read like a mafia novel, or read like it was written by one of DiMaggio's friends. This is somewhat disconcerting, and takes away from the seriousness of the book.
The Dago references, pointed out by other reviewers, didn't really bother me, as that was apparently Joe's nickname.
Overall, not a bad book, but not a complete biography of one of baseball's greatest either.
Rating: 
Summary: Bitter, angry, jealous - and that's just the author
Review: Joe DiMaggio was certainly a great baseball player, but I'm not too sure why he has been idolized as some kind of AMERICAN ICON.
This book is a really tough read and really did'nt tell me anything that I already did'nt know. I rated this with 2 stars simply because the author Richard Ben Cramer overloads 500 pages, and it was probably a lot of work for him. I would'nt recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: DiMaggio Uncovered
Review: Joe DiMaggio, who certainly was one of the most graceful and publicly admired athletes ever, had a dark and less publicized side. Imagine that, a celebrity who had something to hide--this is no surprise and is a poor way to market this book. While Cramer does include some seamy details about DiMaggio's personal life, most of the story is about the creation of his myth. Cramer obviously admires his subject and thought very highly of him, but I suppose in a tabloid era, gossip sells. This biography is very well written and extensively researched, so if you do not know much about Joltin' Joe, this is an excellent place to learn and I am sure it will leave you in awe of his presence on the field. There was a lot of relatively unsubstantiated claims about DiMaggio and many of his associates which detract from the story and make the author seem less than professional, but all in all this is a wonderful book and I would highly recommend it to any sports fan or someone interested in DiMaggio.
Rating:
Summary: What Happened To This Book?
Review: There must be some big, hidden legal, personal, or editorial reason for the terribly awkward structure of this book. It begins with Joe as a kid, covers hime season-by-season with the Yankees, degenerates into tabloibism from the time Joe met Marilyn until her suicide, and then skips from 1962 to 1989 without any explanation at all. This is something you just don't see from major authors and major publishers. What happened?
As is usual from old political reporters writing books (think Halberstam or Woodard) there is no scholarship or authentication. You simply have to take the author's word that things transpired as they did. Bearing this in mind,nobody should be surprised that Cramer's approach is a hack-job -- but he does that to everybody -- there are no good guys in Cramer's world. Everyone has dirty laundry.
Rating:
Summary: Good addition to DiMaggio Literature
Review: This book was a gift from my daughter; as such, I read it even though I knew that it was a hatchet job, for whatever reason, against a great player. At the end of the book I came away with the same conclusion I had when I started, and that is that Joe DiMaggio was one of the greatest hitters of all time (had an immaculate swing) and one of the greatest all around players of all time. As a baseball lover that is all I need to know. In short, he was idolized for his playing ability and for his quite demeanor on the field, while keeping his peccadilloes from public view - why is that so bad? What grudge the author has against Joe DiMaggio I don't know, but I see no need to attack a person based on the shortcomings of that person's personality.
Rating:
Summary: Mind as well read a supermarket tabloid
Review: This book was nothing but a piece of trash. First of all, it's hard to believe one thing in this book because Cramer doesn't give a source. I could write a book about how Lou Gehrig was a womanizing racist using quotes from unnamed sources, but that doesn't mean a word of it is true. I'm not saying that Mr. DiMaggio was a saint but this book tries to make him out to be a spawn of Satan. Lastly, I find it funny that one of the editor's said this book was "elegantly" written. Elegantly? Using racial slurs is elegant? Don't waste your money on this trash.
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